Snowed In
by Piper Elizabeth
Summary: Ray and Neela find themselves snowed in together and find that they both have feelings for each other that they're afraid to share.
1. Chapter 1

**Title: **Snowed In

**Rating:** I'm going to go with FRT.

**Disclaimer:** ER and its affiliated characters do not belong to me. I only use them as a means to de-stress myself.

**Summary: **Ray and Neela find themselves snowed in together and find that they both have feelings for each other that they're afraid to share.

**Note:** This story does not fit into the timeline of ER at all. I basically pretended that the last season and a half never happened and that Ray and Neela are happily living together.

**Chapter 1**

He ran his hand through her hair, his knuckles grazing the side of her face. Her head began to spin and her face became flushed a deep crimson red. He put his hands on her waist, pulling her towards him. She felt the heat of his fingertips on her hip through the thin fabric of her pajama pants. She placed the palms of her hands against his naked chest, feeling the firm muscles that he had worked so hard to obtain and she had always yearned to feel. He gazed into her dark eyes and she knew that he could see right into her soul.

She could sense him moving closer and her body tingled in anticipation. She was excited at just the thought of what was about to happen. She closed her eyes, wanting to feel every movement, every reaction.

She felt his lips meet hers softly. It was such a light touch that she wasn't sure if it constituted as a kiss at all, but it didn't matter. The small kiss sent shockwaves through her body. She had waited so long for that simple little touch from him and it was more than she ever could have dreamed about. She parted her lips, telling him that she didn't want him to stop. She felt his teeth scrape against her bottom lip and she quivered. Shivers went down her spine and flowed through her body. She felt his tongue exploring her mouth and she gladly returned the gesture. Nothing could have prepared her for the feelings that coursed through her body. Nothing had ever felt so good and she doubted that anything would feel that good again.

He took a step forward and they went toppling onto the bed together, never breaking the connection between them. His hand slid up her side underneath her tank top as he passionately devoured her mouth and he…

"Damn it!"

Neela sat straight up in bed. She heard something clunking in the other room and she could hear Ray grunting and swearing loudly.

Neela brought her hand to her face. It felt warm. Without having to look at it, she knew that it was deep red.

_It was just another dream_, she thought to herself, breathing heavily. _A very good dream_, she added, _but just a dream._

It was just a dream in a series of many. It was a dream in a series that had started almost a month ago. Each dream was similar, but they were always different in some way. Sometimes it was the location that changed. Usually it was set in their apartment somewhere, either in her bedroom or in his, sometimes on the couch, and twice even in the kitchen. Every once and a while, though, especially if Neela had an incredibly bad day at work, she would dream they were in the ER lounge or in a trauma room after saving a patient's life. Once she even dreamt they were in the Jumbo Mart she used to work at.

The action that took place in each dream also always changed, but there was always a common goal. At some point in every dream, she and Ray ended up in each other's arms, kissing, but she usually woke up before anything further happened. Once, though, her dream had lasted for so long that he had stripped her of her shirt and pants, but she woke up before it could go any further than that. She still blamed her alarm for that one.

One thing that happened after every dream was when Neela woke up, she was always sweating, beat red, and flustered. And, when she saw Ray for the first time after every dream, she stumbled and stuttered and made some excuse to leave the room out of pure embarrassment. She knew that she would be totally mortified if he ever found out that she dreamed about him in such a way.

As she heard Ray swear one more time, she climbed out of bed. She walked over to her bureau and looked at herself in the mirror. As she suspected, her face was red, but the color was already beginning to fade back to its normal shade. Her stomach was still fluttering as she thought about how it would feel for him to really touch her like that.

_Stop it,_ she berated herself. _He's you're roommate._

Neela felt a chill go down her spine and she shivered. As she folded her arms across her chest to keep her body warm, she realized that she hadn't woken up sweating like she normally did. Sure, she had been a bit warm, but she definitely was not sweating. As matter of fact, she was suddenly freezing.

Neela went back to her bed, grabbed her blanket off the top, wrapped it around her shoulders, and made her way out of the room. She spotted Ray lying on his back next to the heater in the living room. Her first instinct was to try to bypass him on her way to grab something to eat from the kitchen, but, beside the fact that she was interested in what was causing him to swear so loudly so early in the morning, she also knew that she needed to learn to face him after one of her dreams. She couldn't keep on avoiding him forever. _Besides,_ she thought, _there was no way he could know what I was dreaming about_.

"It's freezing in here," she commented, holding the blanket tight around her body.

"The heat's broken," Ray replied.

He had a wrench in his hand and a toolbox full of other tools beside him.

"It's broken?" Neela asked, walking over towards him. The room seemed to grow colder as she went and she shivered again.

"The whole apartment's out. I just talked to Lindsey next door."

"You actually know our next door neighbors?"

"She came over to borrow some eggs a few weeks ago."

"We never have any eggs."

"That's what I told her, but she ended up staying for a drink and we got to talking."

"Oh? About what?"

_I am not jealous,_ Neela told herself. _There's no way I can be jealous over a woman I don't even know. She could be 90 for all I know._

"You know, work, what we do for fun…" _how I'm madly in love with my roommate and can't tell her._ "She's nice. But anyway, the heat's out in the entire building and it hasn't stopped snowing."

"I thought the weather guy said it was supposed to stop last night?"

"He lied."

Neela walked over to the window, lifted the blinds, and looked outside. Everything was covered in a thick blanket of white. The trees around the apartment sagged under the weight of the heavy snow as if they were bowing down to the frozen ground. Cars parked on the street were completely invisible except for the occasional antenna sticking out over the snow. Nothing outside moved except for the thousands of snowflakes that fell from the sky.

"Thirty-three inches and counting," Ray reported. "And now they're saying it's not supposed to stop until late afternoon. We should have close to sixty by then."

"Sixty? That's five feet of snow!"

"Which would explain why we're snowed in."

"Snowed in?" She asked, pretending to be less than thrilled even though she was thinking - S_nowed in! What could be better than spending the whole day with the man I had just been dreaming about ravishing me?_

"You can barely open the front door of the apartment building. Not to mention that even if we did manage to open the door, there wouldn't be anywhere to go. And trudging through five feet of snow is not my idea of a good time."

Neela felt the cold air in the apartment going right through her pajama pants and even the blanket she had around her shoulders.

"Well, it's bloody cold in here."

"And it's going to get colder," Ray said. "The wind chill's supposed to go down to negative four."

"Why didn't you splurge for the apartment with the fireplace?"

"When I was planning on being a rock star, the whole fireplace thing didn't seem to fit my image."

"Maybe if you had the fireplace, it would have helped your career."

"Ouch," Ray said, clutching at his heart, pretending to be hurt.

Neela rolled her eyes.

"I'm going to take a shower," she announced.

"Well, don't waste all the hot water. I'm going to hop in after you." _Or, we could conserve water and hop in together,_ his mind suggested.

"I'll be sure to leave you some," Neela said, throwing off the blanket that she had wrapped around her body.

Neela disappeared into the bathroom, leaving Ray staring at the broken heating unit.

Author's Note: Okay, this story was meant to be short and fluffy. I had no intention of making it more than one chapter, but as I kept writing and it kept getting longer and longer, I decided to break it up into chapters, which just proves to me yet again that I'm not so good at "short" stories. Anyway, this also is really my first attempt at writing the character's actual thoughts and I'm finding it to be quite fun. I hope you enjoyed chapter 1 and stay tuned for chapter 2!


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Annoyed at the fact that he was freezing and that he had basically killed any image of manliness that he had because he was unable to fix the heater, he stood up and gave the heater a kick for good measure. When that didn't work, he dropped the tool that he had in his hand back into the toolbox and he sauntered over to the couch. He picked up the remote control off the coffee table, turned on the television, and began flipping through channels. He settled for an old horror movie from the early 80's that had only started a half hour before. He didn't care that he missed the beginning. He had already seen the movie twice before. Or was it three times? No matter how many times he saw them, though, old horror movies never failed to entertain him. There was just something about the bad special effects like the blood that looked more like ketchup, and the overacting of the young acting hopefuls that made him chuckle and kept his interest.

Ray put his feet up on the table and got comfortable on the couch. Realizing just how cold it was, he pulled Neela's blanket off the back of the couch where she had left it and spread it over him. It was too short to cover his entire body, but he managed well enough, and the blanket kept him warmer than if he had no blanket at all.

_That, and it smells good,_ he thought, smelling the blanket. He tucked it around him, ignoring the movie and concentrating solely on how wonderful the blanket smelled. It smelled just like her, a mixture of wild flowers and apples. It was a scent that was all her own and it tantalized Ray. He was so used to having male roommates that never smelled good, that he couldn't help but notice Neela's unique, sweet smell from the moment she moved in. That was one big difference between having a male and female roommate. Female roommates definitely smelled better. That, and he had never been attracted to a roommate before. Nor had he ever spent so much time, or any time at all, picturing his male roommates naked like he did with her.

_You need to stop that,_ he said to himself. _I should have told Neela to take up all the hot water she wanted. At this rate, I'm going to need a cold shower._

"What are you watching?" She asked, walking up behind him.

He was startled, but he tried not to show it. As he quickly looked back at her and then at the clock on the TV, he realized that a good fifteen minutes had passed and he hadn't even noticed. He was too busy thinking about her.

"Just some old horror movie," he answered.

She walked around the couch and flopped down beside him, sitting closer to him than usual. _It's for warmth,_ she told herself. When she had gotten out of the shower, she had tried to put on as many layers as possible. She had on a long sleeved shirt, a turtleneck, and a sweater, as well as two pairs of pants and two socks. She had tried her best to dry her soaking wet hair, but it still remained damp, which made her head cold.

_God, she looks sexy,_ he thought. With her hair still damp and wavy, it perfectly framed her angelic face. _There's just something about a woman who just got out of a shower. Or maybe it's just that there's something about her._

"What is it with you and cheesy horror movies?" She interrupted his thoughts.

"They're American classics," he quickly stated, hoping that she hadn't noticed that he had begun to daydream about her.

"Are you sure it's not that you enjoy watching the half naked teenage girl running around while she's being chased by some serial killer?"

"Yeah, well, that's an added bonus."

"There should be plenty of hot water left," she stated.

"What?"

"For your shower," Neela answered.

"Oh, yeah, thanks."

Taking a shower was the furthest thing from his mind. He wanted to just sit there and stare at her.

He stood up, reluctantly pulling her blanket off of him. She grabbed it from his hands and quickly wrapped it around her body. Despite the number of layers she was wearing, she still had a bad chill.

"Here," he said, pulling his sweatshirt up over his head and handing it to her.

_Since when did he start sleeping in a shirt?_ Neela asked herself, disappointed when she saw that he was wearing a T-Shirt underneath his sweatshirt.

"What's this for?"

"You look like you're freezing. Besides, it's only fair that, since I stole your blanket, you get to steal my sweatshirt."

_Really, I just want to see how hot you look in it,_ he thought.

She smiled sweetly at him and clasped the sweatshirt to her chest. He walked away towards the bathroom as she snuggled up with his sweatshirt. _Why did he always have to smell so good?_ She pulled his sweatshirt over her head, and crossed her arms over her chest, trying to conserve the warmth that her body was creating.

Having no interest in the movie that was playing, she picked up the remote control to change the station. As she was about to turn to the discovery health channel, her favorite among all the channels, she watched as a man dressed all in black swung an axe over his head and cut a man's body in two.

"Oh come on," Neela said aloud to herself. "That was so fake."

She put the remote control down and settled in to watch the movie.

Twenty minutes later, totally engrossed in the film and on edge now that she learned that the person who was the obvious killer wasn't the killer at all and she realized that she had no idea who the killer might be, Ray stepped out of the bathroom, wearing as many layers as Neela was. He laughed to himself when he heard her gasp as the killer took yet another victim.

_And I thought she didn't like horror movies,_ he thought.

He tiptoed over towards the couch. Just as the main character was being hacked to death with an axe, Ray shook Neela's shoulders and she screamed.

"Damn it!" She yelped, standing up. The blanket slid to the floor in a big heap as Neela brought her hand to her heart, which was pounding heavily.

"Afraid of a…what did you call it…cheesy horror movie?" Ray asked, grinning.

_She does look hot in my sweatshirt,_ he said to himself, looking her quickly up and down. One day he counted how many times he checked her out in on hour. He lost count after fifteen. She was just impossible not to check out even if she was wearing multiple layers of clothing.

"I'm not afraid of a cheesy horror movie," she retorted.

"You looked afraid to me."

"You just startled me."

"You screamed."

_Okay, yes, _she thought, _you did scare me half to death. But I wouldn't mind it if you put your hands back on my shoulders…or anywhere on my body for that matter._

She sat back down on the couch and pulled the blanket up over her.

"Just for that, you're not getting your sweatshirt back."

_Keep it,_ he wanted to say out loud. _It looks better on you anyway_.

The credits began to roll on the movie with eerie music playing in the background. Neela grabbed for the remote as Ray hopped over the couch and reached it before she did. He snatched it from in front of her face and flopped down on the couch.

"There's a marathon of horror movies on," he told her, holding the remote above his head. She stretched for it, but he held it higher, just out of her grasp.

"We are not watching another one of these stupid movies."

"You seemed pretty engrossed in it when I was watching you."

"Oh? And exactly how long were you watching me?" She asked with a smile. _What am I doing?_ She asked herself. _It sounds like I'm flirting with him. I'm not flirting. I'm not flirting._

"We're watching another movie."

She ran her hand over his arm.

"You just want me to be scared so that you'll have to hold my hand."

_Okay, now I'm flirting,_ she thought.

Even through the cloth layers that covered his arm, he could feel her touch and he wanted her to do it again.

Seeing that he was totally distracted, Neela grabbed the remote out of his hand. _There's nothing like flirting with a purpose,_ she thought, triumphing in her victory. _Does he always get that look in his eye when I touch him?_ She asked. _No,_ she dismissed the thought, _he only thinks of you as his roommate. Stop making it any more than what it is._

She began to change the channel.

"We are not going to watch another discovery channel special," he stated.

"It seems to me that you lost control of the remote. Therefore, you have no say in the matter."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah."

Ray threw himself on top of her. He pinned one of her arms at her side and the other above her head. She struggled below him, trying to hold tightly to the remote control, smiling all the while. Using just his fingers from the hand that held her wrist above her head, he tried to pry the remote from her hands.

"No!" She screeched, smiling.

Ray let go of her hand at her side and used it to tickle her abdomen.

"That's not fair!" She giggled, trying her best to maintain her composure and hold on to the remote at the same time.

"Alls fair in remote control wars," he replied, grabbing the remote out of her hands. Even when he had it, he didn't stop tickling her. It wasn't even about the remote anymore. It was about their bodies so close together.

_Kiss her,_ his brain commanded. Their faces were only inches apart. It would be easy to close the gap and finally taste her for the first time instead of imagining what she tasted like.

As he loosened his grip on her, all consumed with the thought of what it would feel like to press his lips against hers even for a brief second, she used all of her strength to push up against him until he fell onto his back with her on top of him.

"Hey!" He yelped as she tickled him.

He dropped the remote out of his hands and it fell to the ground. As they both dove for it, the eerie music that had still been playing from the TV stopped and the television suddenly went blank.

They both stopped what they were doing and stared at the television. She had one knee leaning on the couch, across his hips, while her other leg was on the floor, keeping her from falling off the couch entirely. Her right hand was resting on his chest and her left was just inches from the remote. Ray, on the other hand, was lying down on his back, half on the couch and half off. His right hand was on the remote and his left was around Neela's back. The only thing keeping him from falling off the couch completely was that Neela was still straddling him.

"You broke the TV," she accused.

"I broke the TV?"

"Well, you're the one who dropped the remote on the ground."

"Dropping the remote has nothing to do with breaking the TV."

Neela shifted so that she was no longer on top of him and Ray caught himself before he felt completely to the floor.

_God it's warm in here,_ she thought as she sat back on the couch with her legs beneath her. She knew immediately that the temperature in the apartment hadn't changed at all, but that it was the body heat that was created between them that suddenly made her warm.

Ray sat up beside her, holding on to the remote. He pointed it at the TV and hit the power button. Nothing happened.

"I told you, you broke the TV," she said.

"I did not break it," he insisted.

He hit the power button again. Again, nothing happened. He slammed the remote against the palm of his hand.

"That didn't work with the heater," Neela stated. "What makes you think it'll work with the remote?"

"How do you know I hit the heater?"

"If I recall, you kicked the heater," Neela corrected.

"You were in the shower when I did that. Unless, of course, you were watching me."

"I was not watching you."

_Okay,_ she thought, _I was watching you, but you don't need to know that._

Neela looked down at the cable box, trying not to meet his eyes. She had never been a good liar when it came to having to look someone in the eye. As she stared at the black box, hoping that he wouldn't press the issue that she had been staring at him, she realized that the green numbers that usually displayed the time weren't on.

"We didn't break the TV," Neela realized.

"The power's out," Ray said, coming to the same conclusion.

He stood up and walked over to the light switch that controlled the overhead light in the living room. He flicked it on and off, but nothing happened.

"Great. We're snowed in and we lost electricity," Neela grumbled.

"The wind probably knocked the power lines down."

"What are we supposed to do without a TV?"

_I can think of something,_ Ray thought.

"You know, for someone as intelligent as yourself, you sure do have a dependence on television for entertainment."

"When I'm at work, I'm a doctor, but when I get home, I just want to relax." _With you,_ she added.

"We should find some candles and flashlights for when it starts getting dark. Especially with all of this snow, it'll get dark early."

"And then what do we do?"

_Besides make passionate love,_ her mind suggested.

"Play monopoly?"

"Monopoly?"

Author's Note: First off, I want to say thank you so much to all of you who gave me such amazing responses. I don't think I've had so many responses to the first chapter of a story before. I just hope that the rest of the story doesn't disappoint (especially since I haven't exactly decided what I want to happen yet). The whole idea behind this story came from the "wrestling" scene in this chapter. I know it's not even that long of a scene, but it really started the whole thing off and it was fun to write. Anyway, I hope you liked the chapter and keep those comments coming!


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Three hours later, they had managed to find three flashlights, two of which actually worked, and four candles. Ray had spent a good ten minutes making fun of the fact that one of the candles Neela found in her bedroom was bright red and was called 'romance.' According to the tag, it was supposed to be used to woo a potential lover. On the inside, Ray was thinking that he mine as well give it a try and light it and then maybe it would speed things along between them, but he kept the thought to himself. Neela simply told him that a friend had given it to her as a joke. She didn't bother to tell him that Sam had bought it for her for Christmas last year, telling her to use it wisely and with a certain male roommate.

After they had finished collecting the flashlights and candles, they made turkey sandwiches for lunch and were currently two hours into a game of monopoly. Neela thought Ray had been kidding when he suggested they play, but, along with two flashlights and one candle, he came out of his room with the game.

They had set up the game board, which had seen better days, on the coffee table in the middle of the living room. Neela was sitting on the couch, still wearing Ray's sweatshirt and she had the blanket draped around her shoulders. Ray sat on the floor across from her, having put on yet another layer of clothing. Their apartment had grown colder and Ray guessed that, by nightfall, it would be even worse.

"You owe me two-hundred fifty," he told her as Neela moved her piece the number of spaces the dice said.

"It seems highly unfair that a property that cost you sixty dollars now costs me two-hundred fifty dollars."

"Quit whining and pay up," he said, putting his hand out.

Neela counted out the correct number of bills and handed them to him.

"I hope you end up in jail," she muttered.

"Well, someone's a sore loser," he replied.

Ray picked up the dice and rolled them. He moved the number of spaces and Neela smirked.

"Go to jail," she read the square off the board game.

Ray placed his piece on the jail. Neela quickly snatched up the dice and rolled. She moved her piece and landed on a chance space. She picked up the chance card and her smirk disappeared.

"What does it say?" Ray asked.

She shoved the card at the bottom of the deck and picked up her piece. She placed it beside Ray in jail.

"Well, well, welcome to jail," he said. This time it was he who smirked.

"It figures," she said.

"What does?"

"That you'd somehow manage to get me thrown in jail right along with you."

"You managed to get yourself thrown in jail all by yourself. I had nothing to do with it."

"It is symbolic, though." _Yeah,_ she thought, _symbolic that we do everything together except the one thing that I've been dreaming about._

"What is?" He asked, interrupting her thoughts.

"Us together in jail."

"How do you mean?"

"Well, we live together. We work together. We mine as well end up in jail together."

_If only we did some other things together,_ Ray thought.

"You should call Hallmark. That would make for a good card," he remarked.

"Well, remind me to call them when my fingers thaw."

They both smiled.

_That smile may very well kill me,_ he thought, as he stared at her.

There was a knock on the door.

"Who would be knocking on our door in the middle of a snowstorm?" Ray asked, tearing his eyes away from her face.

_Whoever it is, they better not be staying,_ Neela thought. Even though they were only playing a game of monopoly, she was enjoying spending time with him and she didn't want anyone or anything to spoil it.

Ray got up and opened the door. A middle-aged woman stood in the doorway. She was shorter than Ray by a foot and had chestnut colored hair with a number of grey streaks throughout. Based on the fact that the woman looked to be bulky and uncomfortable, Neela guessed that she was wearing just as many layers as she and Ray were.

"Lindsey, come on in," Ray offered.

He stepped out of the way so Lindsey could enter.

_So that's Lindsey, _Neela thought, breathing a sigh of relief. At least she could stop worrying about Ray having a torrid affair with the girl next door.

"Lindsey, this is my roommate Neela. Neela this is our next door neighbor Lindsey."

Neela stood up and shook her hand.

"It's nice to me you," Neela said politely. Even though she was relieved that Lindsey was old enough to be Ray's mother, she still wanted her to go.

"It seems odd that we've lived next to each other for almost a year and we're just meeting now," Lindsey said sweetly. "Of course, I understand, you're both bright, young doctors with busy lives. I was young and busy once, too. I just came over to see if I could borrow some matches. I have plenty of candles, but no matches."

"Yeah, sure, I'll get some," Ray said. He disappeared into the kitchen.

"He seems like a nice young man," Lindsey said to Neela. Neela nodded. "You know, I always wondered why Ray didn't have a girlfriend. Now I know."

"Oh, Ray and I…we're not…"

"Not yet anyway." Lindsey winked at her. "Like I said, I was young…and in love once, too. I know what that look is."

Ray came back with a book of matches and handed them over to Lindsey.

"Thanks," she said.

"This weather sure is treacherous. First, no heat and now no electricity. We're all going to be frozen in our beds by the morning."

Neela picked up that the woman had a hint of a Southern accent and, for some reason, it made her smile. Although Neela had never really had many female friends, or many friends at all, she felt as if she would be able to sit down and tell this woman her whole life story.

"Well, it's a good thing you have two doctors living next door. We're expert defreezers," Ray joked.

Lindsey laughed.

"Hold on to this one, honey," she said, winking a second time. "Well, you two have a good…warm night."

She turned towards the door. Ray opened it for her and then closed it behind her when she left.

"What was that all about?"

"What?"

"'Hold on to this one, honey?' What did she mean by that?"

"Just some girl talk," Neela replied.

"Girl talk, huh?"

"Yeah, girl talk."

"Did this girl talk have anything to do with me?"

He smiled, making a face that Neela knew all too well. Secretly, she called it his cute face because, simply, he was unbelievably cute when he made it.

"Girl talk is meant to be kept only between girls," she replied sarcastically, turning around.

_Grab her,_ he thought. _Reach out your arm and spin her around, say something witty and romantic, and kiss her._

"Whose turn is it?" She asked.

She sat back on the couch, tucking her legs underneath her.

"It's mine," Ray answered, running his hand angrily through his hair. He knew he would never work up the guts to really kiss her. With other women, he never had a problem. He would have grabbed any other woman and had her in bed before he even had a second thought. But with Neela, it was different. With Neela, he was afraid that if he did take her to bed, she wouldn't be there when he woke up the next morning and that would devastate him. He would rather be her friend than risk losing her if they became lovers.

"Oh, that's right," Neela said. "Someone's got to buy himself out of jail."

"If I recall, we were both in jail. In which case, we could spend some quality time there together." He winked at her. Instead of paying his $50 to get out of jail, he rolled the dice, chancing that he might get doubles to get himself out of jail. Really, he had no interest in getting out of jail. Even though it was just a game and they were just playing with little, pewter pieces, Ray wanted to stay in jail with Neela. He realized it was stupid, but it was true.

Author's Note: Again, I just want to start off by thanking everyone for all of your comments. I'm completely overwhelmed by all of the responses to this fic. The whole monopoly thing came from my own life. Whenever the power goes out or my family is stuck inside during a bad storm or something, we play monopoly. I thought it would be a fun thing to put in a fic. Well, I can't tell you when the next chapter will be posted because I'm not sure where I want to go with this fic yet, but thank you for reading so far and stay tuned!


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

Ray stood at the window, pushing the blinds aside. He stared at the white blanket of snow. It had stopped snowing several hours before, but the streets were still deserted. Ray hadn't seen a single car or person pass. Then again, with five feet of snow, the roads and sidewalks were impassable. He probably wouldn't see anything or anyone except a snowplow for a long time.

"What a mess," Ray grumbled.

"At least it stopped," Neela replied, poking her head out of the kitchen.

Ray looked over at her as she disappeared back into the kitchen.

"What are you making anyway?" He asked.

"It's a surprise!" She called back.

_Let's hope it's at least something edible,_ Ray thought, thinking back to the last time Neela tried to cook something. The kitchen ended up looking like a volcano erupted and the food tasted like molten lava. _But, then again, even if it does taste like lava, nothing can ruin this day._

He looked back out the window and sighed contently, thinking about the day. After Lindsey left, he and Neela had spent another two hours playing monopoly. Even though their game still wasn't finished, Neela was near bankrupt so they had called it quits. The game, though, was still set up on the living room table.

Afterwards, Neela had said that she wanted to catch up on reading some medical journals so she retreated to her room. Disappointed, Ray went to his own room to work on a song that had been floating around his head. He may not have been in the band anymore, but that didn't stop him from writing music. And he seemed to be more inspired since Neela had moved in than he ever had before.

After more than an hour, Ray's muses had run dry, and he sauntered by her bedroom door to see what she was up to. He laughed out loud when he saw that she was reading a romance novel with a Fabio look alike on the cover. He grabbed the book from her hands and began reading one of the love scenes out loud in a deep voice. As Ray began to read how the man in the story began to tenderly rub the woman's feet as he simultaneously took off her stockings, Neela managed to snatch it away from him. She threw the book in the drawer of her bedside table and explained that she was only reading it because someone had lent it to her and she was tired of reading things that required her to think. Ray laughed even harder at her. Inside, though, he was thinking about how Neela would react if he started rubbing her feet to seduce her. He was also thinking, or maybe he wished, that, instead of reading the romance novel, they were acting out the scenes in the romance novel together. Suddenly, he was much more interested in continuing to read the scene, but he would never admit that to her.

After it began to get dark, and neither of them wanted to waste the flashlight batteries or candles reading, they spent another three hours simply sitting on the couch and talking. That was perhaps Neela's favorite activity that they did together. She loved just talking to him. She loved the way his voice sounded. She loved that they could talk for hours about anything at all and have an amazing time. She loved just being with him.

Over the three hours, they talked about everything two people could possibly talk about. For the first time, Ray told her about his childhood and what had brought him to Chicago. He talked about how it hurt him to leave his band, but that it was the best decision he had ever made. He nearly added that one of the reasons he chose to stay was because of her, but he caught himself before he revealed that very important fact to her.

Neela had shared how it felt to leave her family behind to come to America. Ray even wiped a tear from her eye as she spoke about how she hadn't seen her parents in years and how she missed them desperately. As his thumb brushed slowly and lightly over her cheek, it left an invisible streak of heat almost as if he had burned her. But it was most definitely a good kind of burn.

They also, of course, spent a good part of the three hours talking about the ER. They discussed the latest gossip and shared some of their most memorable patients with each other. They even made a bet as to who, out of the newest interns, would be the first to throw up in the middle of a trauma. And, for nearly half an hour, they discussed the finer points of playing mini-golf, an activity that neither of them knew the other one liked.

Finally, at the end of the three hours, Neela's stomach began to grumble loudly. They both laughed and Ray looked down at his watch. It was just past eight. He hadn't realized how much time had gone by.

_Time certainly passes quickly when you're preoccupied with staring at a beautiful woman and hanging on her every word_, he thought to himself.

Neela had then gone into the kitchen to find something that they could eat without having electricity. Unfortunately, their dinners were mostly limited to what could be made in the microwave and she definitely was not the best cook anyway, so she didn't have high hopes for their meal. She was so hungry, though, that it didn't matter.

Staring out the window, Ray crossed his arms over his chest to try to keep himself just a little be warmer. Both he and Neela were absolutely freezing, but he wouldn't have traded the day for anything, not even heat. Just talking with her had been an amazing experience. He had never met a woman he could talk to so easily. And he had never shared half the things he told her with any other person before.

Ray heard her walk out of the kitchen. He turned from the window to look at her and almost laughed. With all of the layers she had on, and the blanket that she still had around her shoulders, she looked to be about ten times her real size. She was also wearing a pair of bright blue, fuzzy mittens and a matching hat.

"What's so funny?" She asked, noticing that he was trying to hide a smile.

"Nothing," he replied.

"No, what is it?"

He cracked a smile.

"You," he admitted.

"Me? Do I have something on my face or something?"

"No."

"Then what's so funny about me?"

"You look like a…"

"A what?"

"Monster," Ray finished.

Neela's jaw dropped open.

"A monster?"

"Cookie Monster to be more exact," he replied, laughing.

Neela took the hat off her head and threw it at him.

"You certainly know how to sweet talk a woman," she said, pretending to be angry.

Ray picked up the hat off the floor. It had missed him by a good foot.

_I really need to work on my aim,_ she thought.

"Did I mention that I always found cookie monster to be incredibly cute?"

_Cute? Did he just say I was cute?_ She wondered.

_Where did that come from? _He asked himself. _Did I really just call her cute? I mean, yeah, she's cute…she's more than cute, but did I actually say it out loud? Wait…did I just compare her to a Sesame Street character? Yeah, Ray, that's the way to get her to know that you love her. Tell her she looks like a giant, blue monster. Good going._

Ray walked over to her and pulled the hat over her head. It fell so low that it covered her eyes.

_And now she looks even cuter,_ his mind added.

"Well, Cookie Monster just made us some dinner," she said, pulling the hat up so she could at least see.

_Okay,_ she thought, _so maybe he just called me Cookie Monster, but he at least called me a cute Cookie Monster. That's got to count for something._

Neela walked back into the kitchen and Ray followed. There was a plate of turkey sandwiches on the kitchen table along with a large bag of regular potato chips. She had put out two beers and a candle in the center of the table. The candle, which was the only real light in the room, cast a flickering shadow over the table.

"Turkey sandwiches again?" He whined.

"Well, it's either that or we try to pry a can open and eat cold spaghetti o's," she stated. "Or we could start a fire in the middle of the living room with the coffee table and roast some hotdogs."

"If we had some hotdogs, I'd say that is a splendid idea."

They both sat at the table.

She passed him a sandwich.

_At least turkey sandwiches are safe to eat,_ he thought, thinking about her cooking. _There's not much she can do to screw them up._

"Thanks," he said.

She opened the bag of chips and set it back down on the table. She reached inside, grabbed a chip, and munched on it.

"So, how long do you think the electricity will be out?" She asked, knowing that he wouldn't know the answer, but she felt the need to say something.

"Let's hope it's back up before tomorrow morning. I'm more worried about the heat, though. This whole week is supposed to be below freezing temperatures. I mean, Mrs. Gill downstairs is nearly ninety."

"Do you know all of our neighbors?"

Ray shrugged. "I helped her carry her groceries in once," he explained, munching on his sandwich. "She gave me a quarter."

"Big spender," Neela remarked, chewing her own sandwich.

Ray smiled as he reached into the bag for a potato chip. Neela put her hand inside at the exact same moment. Their fingers lightly brushed against each other before they both took their hands out of the bag.

Neela could feel her face turning red and her stomach did what she could only describe as a flip.

_He just touched you,_ she yelled at herself. _It's not like he hasn't touched you before._

"It's getting really dark," he commented, somewhat stumbling over his words. "I'm going to get another candle."

He stood up, trying desperately to ignore the feeling that their simple touch had sparked in his body. He walked to the living room where they had put down all of their supplies and brought back one of the candles and some matches. He set the candle down on the table and lit it.

"Romance."

"What?" He stuttered, staring at her with wide eyes.

"You picked the romance candle."

"Did I?"

He hadn't noticed. Or had he? Did he pick that specific candle from the three that were on the kitchen table out of some subconscious yearning?

"You better not be getting any ideas," she flirted.

_Okay, now I'm outwardly flirting,_ she thought. _There's no way he can miss the fact that I'm flirting._

"I…I think I'm going to call it a night."

_Or, maybe he can miss it,_ she thought._ What was I thinking? Flirting with my best friend? There's no way he could have the same feelings for me that I have for him. _

"I was up early trying to fix the heat and I'm supposed to go in for ten tomorrow morning, which means I'll have to be out there two hours early just to dig myself out…" he rambled.

"I'm…um…going in for eleven so I'll help you with the snow."

"Yeah, okay, goodnight."

"Goodnight."

Ray walked away, leaving his half eaten turkey sandwich and a very confused and sad Neela behind.

Author's Note: I have to admit that this was a tough one. I rewrote it quite a few times and I'm still unsure of it, but I just needed to post it before I rewrote it again. I apologize for how long it took me to update and it will probably be a while before I can write/post the next one, but I promise I'm working on it. I hope you enjoyed it!


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

_What the hell was I thinking?_

Frustrated with himself, Ray kicked the garbage can in his room. He watched it fly across the room, the garbage spilling out onto the floor, but he didn't care. He sat down on the edge of his bed and buried his head in his hands.

_I had the perfect opportunity to make a move and I decide that it's time to call it a night. What is wrong with me? _

He looked over at the sheet music that was still on his bed from earlier in the afternoon when he had been writing. It was a song that, even if he didn't want to admit it, he had written because of her. He had to get the feelings that he was having off of his chest and writing was the only way he knew how. As he stared at the words, he crumpled them up in his hands and threw them to where the garbage can used to be. He threw himself back against the pillows.

_If she was just another girl…if I didn't feel the way that I feel… this would be so much easier. I would be able to just kiss her and get it over with. But she's not just another girl and I can't help but feel the way I feel._

In the kitchen, Neela stared at the turkey sandwich that she had only half finished. She shivered, feeling as if the kitchen had just gotten ten degrees colder since he had walked away. She stood up and threw the sandwich away. Suddenly she didn't feel as hungry and she felt drained. She left Ray's sandwich and the bag of chips right where they were, not having the energy to clean it up. As she went to blow out the candle that was still burning on the table, a tear rolled down her cheek. She quickly wiped it away with the back of her hand.

_Stop crying,_ she told herself. _There's no reason to be crying. I'm the one who set myself up for disappointment. I'm the one who let myself believe that he might have feelings for me that he obviously doesn't have. He just wants to be friends. I shouldn't be crying over having the best friend a person could ever want. Stop crying. _Another tear fell. _Stop crying._

But she couldn't. As the tears fell down her face, she wiped them away, but they came too quickly and finally, she let them fall. She lowered herself to the kitchen floor and she sobbed quietly, mourning a relationship that she realized she never had.

Hours later, Ray was lying in bed underneath a sheet, a comforter, and three extra blankets. He even wore a long sleeved shirt and a pair of sweat pants even though he was usually much more comfortable with nothing but a pair of boxer shorts.

He stared at his ceiling, unable to sleep. He had heard Neela go to her own room and slam the door soon after he had walked away from her. It was the slammed door that kept him awake. He kept asking himself if the slammed door meant that she was hurting because he had walked away or if she was just annoyed for some other reason, like being freezing. Did the slammed door mean that she had similar feelings or was it nothing more than a door just closed too hard?

Sighing, Ray rolled over.

_Why are women so complicated? And how did this perfect day end up so…unperfect?_

As he closed his eyes, hoping that he might fall asleep to take his mind off of things, he heard a loud crash and he heard her scream.

Ray's heart stopped. He threw off the covers, bolted out of bed, and raced to her room. He didn't even bother to knock. He flung her door open and scanned the room. He saw her through the darkness, sitting on the floor by her closet. She was surrounded by shoeboxes, pants, shirts, hangers, and a number of other miscellaneous paraphernalia.

"What happened?" Ray asked, walking over to her and offering her a hand. He helped her up, but didn't let go of her hand once she was standing. She rubbed the back of her head with her free hand.

"My closet…fell apart," she explained.

Ray looked over at the mess and then at her closet. The bar and shelves that ran across the top of the closet had fallen, sending everything toppling down. Neela's once extremely organized closet was now a large pile of stuff.

"Are you okay?"

He grabbed a flashlight off the table by her bed and turned it on, pointing it at her. Ray let go of her hand, not realizing that he had still been holding it. He went behind her and started examining her head.

"You've already got quite the bruise," he told her as he pushed her hair aside to look at her scalp.

"I think my stilettos fell right on my head," she said.

_Stilettos? Her legs would look gorgeous in stilettos. Then again, her legs would look gorgeous in…_

She winced as he touched the spot where she had been hit.

"Sorry," he apologized. "I've never seen you wear a pair of stilettos."

"That's because I've never worn them. Abby made me buy them once. It was stupid." _Why am I telling him this? And why does he care that I own a pair of stilettos anyway? I mean, I know Ray's a leg man, but…_ "Ouch!"

"Sorry," he apologized again. "Well, I don't think you have a concussion. It's just going to be sore for a while."

He stroked her hair gently, putting it back into place. He unconsciously leaned in towards her, smelling her. She smelled just like her blanket from that morning. In his opinion, it was the perfect scent.

"What were you doing in your closet anyway?" He asked, trying to get his mind off of her scent.

"I was looking for this," she said, picking up a blanket from the ground.

"Well, in the future, I would suggest wearing the blanket, not the closet."

Neela quickly wrapped the blanket around herself.

"When I reached for the blanket, I tripped and I grabbed for the bar to keep myself from falling down. Unfortunately, the bar fell with me."

Ray let out a deep chuckle, thinking about her falling with the bar in hand.

"It's not funny," she insisted, holding back a laugh of her own. She could only imagine what it had looked like when Ray had walked in and she was sitting on the floor surrounded by the contents of her closet.

"You have to admit, it is a little funny," he replied. "I'll put it back up tomorrow."

Neela smiled as Ray walked closer to the closet, inspecting the damage. There was just something about him doing handy work that tugged at her heart.

"Thank you, but I'm a little more worried about the heat than my closet. It's absolutely freezing."

"You said that earlier today."

"Yeah, well, now I mean it."

She shivered and tenderly rubbed the back of her head.

"You should put some ice on the back of your head, you know," Ray suggested, bringing his attention back to her.

"Are you volunteering to go outside and find me some? There's no electricity, which means the refrigerator isn't on, which means the ice has probably melted by now. Granted, it's so cold that I wouldn't be surprised if I saw ice starting to form on the walls."

"Okay, so we'll go without the ice."

"Besides, if I put anything frozen on my head, it'll just make me colder."

"It does seem to be colder in your room than mine."

"Mine's on the outside of the apartment building. Yours is on the inside. Less wind."

"Why don't you stay with me tonight?"

_What? _He thought.

_What?_ Her head screamed. _Did he just say what I think he just said? Did he ask me to stay with him?_

_Did I just ask her to stay with me? Where did that come from? I mean, yeah, I want her to stay with me more than anything in the world but just four hours ago, I was pushing her away and now I'm inviting her to my bed. What is going on with me?_

"Ray…I…" she began.

"Look, it's warmer in my room and with the body heat…we'll both be warmer," he quickly rationalized.

_With the amount of heat I feel when I'm near him, we could start a small fire,_ Neela thought.

"I guess it does make sense," she responded, wondering if she had agreed for the warmth or because she would be literally sleeping with him.

They both stared at the floor. An awkward tenseness that they rarely felt with each other fell upon them.

"Well, that's settled then," Ray said, breaking the silence. He headed off towards his room and Neela followed a few steps behind. As she entered his room, she held her breath. It felt like she was crossing a threshold she had never before crossed.

_You've seen his room before,_ she reminded herself. _Hell, you've slept in his bed before._ She remembered the memory fondly. Her room was being painted and he was working day shifts while she was working night shifts so he offered her his room. _Of course, this time he'll be in the bed when you're in it, but he's just you friend. I mean, you've fallen asleep on the couch together dozens of times. This is no different._

But from the moment he sat on the bed and she sat on the other side, she knew that it was definitely different. He laid down first, simply laying on his back, staring at the ceiling. Neela slowly lowered herself down beside him on her side so she was facing away from him. There was a foot of space between them.

Ray reached for the blankets at the end of his bed and he covered them both. At the same time, Neela threw the blanket that was still wrapped around her body on top of them. Ray settled back down against the pillows. Even though they were far from each other, he could feel her beside him and he longed to be closer.

_Just do it,_ he thought.

He inched closer to her, slowly at first, but then more quickly. She felt his chest press against her back and his arm wrapped around her so that he had her in a warm embrace.

_This feels so right,_ she thought.

She shifted back against him to be closer to him. She felt his hand close around hers and his head left his pillow to rest on hers. They were perfectly spooned together, as if their bodies were meant to be there in that position for the rest of eternity.

Immediately, they both felt their eyes drooping. As Ray drifted off to sleep, only one thought came to his mind.

_I love her._

Author's Note:

Well, this chapter definitely took me the shortest time to write. I've never before completely written, edited, and posted a chapter in one day and that's what I just did. I just hope that doing it so fast wasn't a mistake. Anyway, thank you for all of the great comments and everyone's patience as I continue with this story. I hope you liked it and please continue to comment!

Edit: I do apologize for the mistake about the electricity in the first edition of this chapter. I have since fixed it and I hope it all makes sense now. Thanks to Beaglicious for pointing it out!


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

As he unconsciously stretched out his leg to get into a more comfortable position, he felt his foot brush against something beside him. Not really paying any attention to what he was rubbing up against, he straightened his leg and felt her do the same thing in her sleep.

_Her?_ He thought as his brain and his body began to wake up. He blinked a few times before he was able to focus on her. She was there, lying beside him sleeping peacefully. _It wasn't a dream. She's really here._

Ray didn't dare move, not wanting to wake her. As he finally convinced himself with 100 certainty that he had not dreamt the fact that he fell asleep with her in his arms, he looked at her. He noticed that they had barely moved throughout the night. Her back was to him and his arm was still draped over her waist. He slowly brushed a strand of her hair away from her face.

_She's beautiful,_ he thought, just watching her sleep.

Ray rested his head back next to hers on the pillow. He pressed his lips against the back of her hair where a bruise had already begun to turn black and purple, and he kissed her softly. He felt her stir next to him.

She drifted slowly into consciousness, feeling so warm and protected that she felt like it was a dream.

_Was it another dream?_ She asked herself. She felt his arm tighten around her waist and she smiled. _This definitely wasn't a dream._

"Good morning," he whispered.

"Mm…good morning," she replied.

Any awkwardness that he thought might be between them was nonexistence. He felt so comfortable lying there with her. He knew that if he had the choice, he would never get out of bed again.

"What time is it?" She asked, attempting to roll over. He reluctantly took away his arm from around her waist and shifted over, giving her more room to move.

"It's just before eight," he answered.

She stretched out her legs and rolled over to face him.

_Why does he have to look so cute in the morning?_ She asked herself, looking at him for the first time. She brought her hand to his head and brushed his hair down, smiling.

"Thanks," he said sheepishly, wondering just how messy his hair was. "How's your head?"

"It hurts a little, but it's fine. I had a good doctor."

She had felt him kiss her on the back of the head, even though he didn't know it. No medicine could have made her feel better.

"Did you sleep okay?" He asked.

_You've got the most beautiful woman you've ever seen…the woman you're in love with…in your bed and you're making small talk?_ he said to himself.

She nodded. "And you were right. It is definitely much warmer in your room."

They laid there, facing each other, both not wanting to move. Neither of them had ever felt so completely peaceful before.

"We should get up and start shoveling ourselves out," Ray suggested, even though he really didn't want to.

"I guess you're right."

After laying there for a few more seconds, Ray finally slid his legs over the side of the bed. He stood up, stretched, and then walked over to the light switch. He flicked it and the overhead light turned on.

"Guess the electricity's back on," he said, turning back towards the bed. She was still lying in bed, but she had closed her eyes. Her hair fell across her face and her hand was resting on the spot where he had been lying.

_What I wouldn't give to wake up like this every morning,_ he thought, gazing at her.

"Let's hope the heat is back on," she murmured, feeling herself falling back to sleep.

"Well, you sleep for a few more minutes. I'll go fix us some breakfast."

Ray took one last look at her, imprinting the picture of her lying on his bed, half asleep, before leaving the room. As he walked out into the living room, he stopped first at the heating unit. He placed his hand close to the vent and immediately felt heat coming from it.

_I guess this means there won't be anymore little sleepovers,_ he thought, somewhat disappointed. Realizing how much warmer it was in the apartment than when they had fallen asleep the night before, he took off the sweater he had been wearing, threw it on the couch, and walked off to the kitchen.

As Neela began to drift back into sleep, she smelled the scent of something mouthwatering cooking coming from the kitchen. She immediately woke up and got out of bed as her stomach growled loudly. She thought back to the night before, remembering that she hadn't eaten because Ray had walked away from her.

_Does last night mean things are different?_ She wondered. _Does sleeping in the same bed with a man mean that he has feelings for you or was he just being a nice guy? _She sighed as her own thoughts confused her. _Where's Abby when I need here? _

Realizing that the heat must have been fixed by the fact that she was about to begin sweating, Neela began stripping all of the extra layers that she had on. As she walked through the doorway, wearing only a long sleeved shirt and a pair of pajama pants, she spotted Ray's sweatshirt among the pile of clothes that she had taken off. She had forgotten that she was still wearing it underneath several other layers. She had forgotten that she hadn't taken it off since he had let her borrow it the morning before. Even though she was no longer cold, she slipped the sweatshirt over her head and breathed in his scent that still lingered on the fabric.

"Hey, the heat's fixed," Ray stated, flipping over a large pancake in the pan on the stove.

"Yeah, I noticed," Neela said, as she approached the kitchen doorway. "It smells delicious in here."

Ray looked over at her, noticing right away that she was wearing his sweatshirt and it made him smile.

"Pancakes," he replied. "A Ray Barnett specialty." Neela took a seat at the kitchen table. "And by the way, we have some serious cleaning to do in the refrigerator."

"Oh?"

"Let's just say that take-out leftovers don't last too long when the refrigerator's not on."

Neela made a sickly face, just thinking about the smell that would probably come from the refrigerator once they opened the door.

Ray flipped the pancake he was making onto a plate and set it down in front of Neela. As soon as he handed her a knife and fork, she immediately began to chow down. He poured more batter into the pan.

"I've never met a woman who eats like you," he remarked as he watched her shovel the food into her mouth. She immediately stopped eating. Her face fell and she swallowed the food that was in her mouth with a loud gulp.

_That's great, Neela. You really know how to make a good impression,_ she berated herself.

"Don't get me wrong," he continued, noticing her reaction, "it's one of the things I love about you."

_Love? Did he say love?_ she asked herself.

Ray turned back towards the stove to flip his pancake.

"Thank you for…" _for what? Sharing your bed with me?_ "…last night," she said.

"Anytime," he replied, sitting down at the table across from her with his pancake. _Did I really just say anytime? _"The weather channel this morning said it's supposed to get up into the forties today so hopefully some of the snow will melt," he said, changing the subject.

"It could get up into the eighties and that snow still wouldn't all melt," Neela responded.

Ray looked at the clock over the stove. "Then we better get a move on shoveling ourselves out."

They both quickly finished eating and then went back into their rooms to change. They met back by the front door fifteen minutes later. She was still wearing his sweatshirt.

"I know, I know," Neela said as she approached him. She pulled the blue, fuzzy hat that she had been wearing the day before over her head. "I look like Cookie Monster."

"But remember," he replied, pulling it down more tightly on her head, "you're a cute Cookie Monster."

She smiled flirtatiously and put on her blue mittens. He pulled a wool hat over his own head and put on a pair of thick, black gloves.

"You ready?" He asked, grabbing a shovel from the hall closet and handing it to her.

"Yeah," she replied, zippering her coat.

Ray opened the front door.

"Oh, I just have to grab my scarf," she remembered, realizing that her neck was bare.

"I'll go out and get started. I'll meet you out there," he decided.

Neela nodded and headed back towards her room. Ray walked out of the apartment with a shovel in hand. As Neela searched for her scarf through all of the stuff that had once been neatly in her closet, but was now on her bedroom floor, she heard the sound of someone walking into the apartment. The squeaky floorboards made it impossible for someone to walk in unannounced.

Neela walked out into the hallway and spotted Lindsey standing just inside the doorway.

"I see you survived the night," Neela said, walking closer to her.

"Barely," Lindsey replied. "I don't think I've ever been so cold. Oh, and I came over to bring these back." She held out the box of matches that Ray had let her borrow. "The door was open so I figured I'd just leave them on the table."

"Yeah, Ray and I were just going to try to dig ourselves out," Neela explained.

"Good luck with that. You can barely open the front door."

"Great. Something tells me we're going to be late to work. Oh, and keep the matches," Neela insisted. "Just in case."

"Thanks." She stuffed them in her pocket. "So, I suspect your night wasn't so cold," she said, raising her eyebrow and smiling.

"Why would you think…" Neela blushed as she figured out what Lindsey had been implying. "No, it was nothing like that." _Although I wish it had been like that._

Lindsey put her hand on Neela's shoulder as only an older, more experience woman could do.

"It always takes men a little extra time to figure out what they really want," she said. "But I have a feeling that he'll be coming around sooner rather than later."

"How can you be so sure?" Neela asked, perhaps acting more boldly than she normally would. It wasn't everyday that she asked an almost complete stranger about her relationships, or lack there of. "I mean, you barely know us. How can you be so sure about…us?"

"Oh, honey, when you know…you know. You love him, don't you?" Neela didn't respond. "Don't you?"

_Do I? I mean, yes, I know I do. I've loved him practically since the day we met, but I've never said it. My God, what if I can't say it?_

"Yes, I love him," she said. The words flew easily from her lips and she suddenly felt relieved. She had said it and it only made her want him more.

"And he loves you. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what comes next. It's just a matter of how long it takes you. But when he finally does come around…I want all of the juicy details."

Neela laughed out loud at the thought of spilling her guts to a woman she barely knew. And yet, she knew that Lindsey was just one of those kinds of people you could do that with.

"You two have fun at work," Lindsey said, winking. "Bye now."

"Bye."

As soon as Lindsey left, Neela went back to her room to find her scarf. When she found it, she wrapped it tightly around her neck and tucked it into her coat. As she grabbed a shovel, she kept repeating in her mind _I love him_ over and over again.

Author's Note: Again, I wrote this one pretty fast and I think I actually like this "fast-paced" writing because it gives me less time to think about all the things that I think "could be better." I really had no intention of bringing Lindsey back into the story, but it seemed like people liked her, so she made a return. There's only one more chapter to go so stay tuned!


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

As Neela squeezed through the front door of the apartment building, which she could barely open from the amount of snow that blocked it, the cold air hit her as if she was being smacked across the face. Pulling her hat down a little further over her ears, she stepped out into the snow and immediately shielded her eyes from the bright sun that glared off the frozen whiteness that surrounded her. She walked down a narrow path that led toward the apartment building parking lot. She was grateful that someone had obviously already shoveled the path. She looked around for Ray, or his car, but saw nothing but snow. Everything was completely covered.

"Ray!" She called out.

"Over here!" He shouted back. She followed the sound of his voice, trudging through the thick carpet of snow underneath her. The walk was slow going. In some places, the snow was up to her waist. She was thankful, though, that it wasn't any higher. Even though it had really snowed somewhere close to sixty inches, the wind had picked up some of the top layers of snow, which caused large snow drifts in certain areas. Neela could see that some of the drifts against the side of the apartment building towered over her head.

"We're never getting out of here," she stated as she finally made her way over to Ray. She was already exhausted and panting heavily from her short walk. Ray had his shovel in the ground. He scooped up a large pile of snow and carelessly threw it behind him. He had only managed to skim off a top layer of snow away from one of the front tires.

"Not without breaking our backs," he remarked, already beginning to feel the strain on his back. He dug his shovel into the snow again, picked up as much as he could, and tossed it behind him. Neela made her way over to the other tire and began shoveling.

_This is hopeless,_ she thought as she realized that there were five or six layers of snow that would have to be shoveled through before you could even think of reaching the pavement.

As she tossed away her seventh pile of snow, Ray flung the snow from his shovel into the spot she had just cleared.

"Hey!" She shouted.

Ray turned to look at her and chuckled. He really hadn't meant to throw snow on her area, but it was funny.

"You really should get a move on if you don't want to be late," he smirked.

Neela scooped up snow in her hand and threw it at him. The poorly made snowball missed him by a good foot.

_Okay, I am really going to work on my aim,_ she thought, _because I am just pitiful_.

"If you're going to throw a snowball," Ray began, "you at least should have the decency to do it right."

He began to gather snow carefully in his gloved hands. Neela squealed and darted behind the car, trying to protect herself. After a good solid minute, when she didn't hear him, she peered out behind the front of the Ray's car, wondering what he was doing. Not being able to see him, she took a step forward. She felt the snowball hit her square in the back.

She whirled around and saw him behind her, howling with laughter.

"You are so going to pay for that!" She yelled, lunging for him.

S_he sure is cute when she's angry,_ he surmised, running away from her.

Even though she made a valiant effort to chase him, with the deep snow, she didn't get very far. They both ran around the car as fast as the snow beneath their feet would allow them to. Neela scooped up snow in her hand and worked it into a fairly large snowball. She hurled it at him, and, amazingly, managed to hit him in the leg.

"We're supposed to be clearing the snow, not throwing it," he reminded her as he turned to face her. She was several feet away and had another snowball ready in her hand.

"You started it," she retorted.

"Actually, you threw the first snowball. Not that I would even consider that pitiful thing a snowball, but…"

"You threw snow into my pile," she accused, pointing her finger at him.

"Well, whoever started it, and I'm not saying I did, I think we should get back to work," he remarked, "or we'll never get out of here." He held out his right hand to her. "Truce?"

As she took a step towards him, he revealed his hand from behind his back and threw a snowball at her. It hit her directly in the face. With a solemn look, she spit out the snow that had made its way into her mouth and wiped her cold, wet, face. He nearly fell down he was laughing so hard.

"You're dead," she said simply.

Ray began to run, knowing from personal experience that the wrath of Neela could be near fatal. He raced around the car, finding it easier now that they had trampled over the snow so much. Neela chased after him, ready to attack with a thick snowball in her hand.

Ray was waiting behind the car, listening to her footsteps as she approached. As soon as he saw her shadow approaching the edge of the car, he leapt out and caught her around the waist. They both fell together onto the snow.

They were both giggling as Ray fell on top of her. The light snow had broken their fall. Neela's eyes began to water from laughing so hard.

"I do believe this is the second time you've fallen on top of me in two days," she commented, laughing.

"I believe you're right," he agreed, still smiling.

"Is there any particular reason why you're always on top of me?"

She had asked the question before even thinking about it. _What kind of question was that?_ she wondered to herself. _Do you really expect him to answer that? Maybe next time you should think before you speak. Or maybe next time you shouldn't go falling in love with your roommate because falling in love with your roommate apparently makes you say stupid things._

Ray stopped laughing as he looked into her dark eyes. Her face was red and wet from the snow and her hat had somehow fallen off somewhere in the snow so her hair was sprawled out across the snow, covered in small ice crystals.

As she saw that he was looking at her, she too stopped laughing and they stared into each other's eyes.

_I don't care if loving him makes me stupid because I can't help it. I love him,_ she thought.

_Kiss her, _his mind screamed.

_Kiss me,_ her own mind echoed.

He let his face linger near hers.

_It's now or never,_ they both thought at the same time.

In a swift motion, he lowered his lips to hers and she met him halfway. Whatever either of them had expected, the meeting of their lips was like nothing they could have ever anticipated or even yearned for. It was so much more than they could have imagined. Their kiss wasn't soft as most first kisses were. It was full of passion, greediness, and pure need. His mouth claimed hers for his own and she gave herself to him fully. Her mind raced so fast that no coherent thoughts came to her and she was happy to let herself stay like that forever.

As their lips parted, out of nothing more than a necessity for oxygen, Ray opened his eyes and looked at her.

_If I die right now, I will have died the happiest man on the planet._

Her eyes were still closed and her lips were swollen and red from his kiss. Her eyes fluttered open.

"That is the reason why I'm always on top of you," he said matter-of-factly.

"I would say that was a very good reason," she stated, it being the only thing that came to her mind. "Ray?"

"Yeah?"

"Do it again."

"I'm always more than happy to appease a beautiful wom…"

She pulled at his scarf, dragging him down towards her. This time their kiss started out slower. He wanted to explore everything about her mouth, every crevice. He wanted to remember what she tasted like and what it felt like to have his lips pressed against his.

_So this is what love feels like,_ she thought. _This is what kissing the one person you're meant to spend the rest of your life with feels like._

As he clawed at her scarf, trying to give himself more access to her bare skin, he felt his cell phone vibrating in his pocket.

"Damn it," he said against her mouth, pulling away from her.

_Remind me to murder whoever's calling me._

"That wasn't exactly the response I was hoping for," she said.

"No, it's my phone."

He sat up, stripped off his glove, and began to dig through his pocket in his Jeans. With all of the layers he had on, it was difficult to actually find his phone. Finally, when he did manage to find it, he flipped it open and held it up to his ear.

"Yeah?" He answered it, angrily.

Neela sat up and took off his hat, throwing it carelessly on the ground. She began to playfully nip at his ear. She was never one for making the moves, but she couldn't help herself. He was so irresistible that it made her ache inside.

_God, she's trying to kill me,_ he thought, finding himself being totally seduced.

"What? Yeah…okay. Yeah…I'll…ah…I'll tell her. Let us know. Thanks."

As he shut the phone, Neela placed her lips against his once more.

"Who was it?" She asked, between kisses.

"The hospital."

"Oh?"

She moaned as he placed small kisses along her jaw.

"They said that there's a tree down in the ambulance bay."

"Mmm? And?"

She dug her hands into his wet hair as he continued his exploration of her mouth.

"And the ER's closed to traumas indefinitely. That means they don't need us to come in."

"Have any idea what we can do our day off?"

"I've got a few ideas."

He scooped her up in his arms and continued to kiss her as he trudged through the snow back towards the apartment. It was slow going, but neither of them cared. It just gave them more time to make out.

When they made it into the apartment building, Ray slammed the door closed with the back of his foot. He began to work the zipper on Neela's jacket.

"I would say I told you so, but I think that would be an understatement," Lindsey commented as she walked down the stairs into the foyer area where Ray and Neela were practically stripping each other.

Neela's face burned red as Ray put her down on her own two feet.

"Lindsey…we were just…" Neela stuttered.

"Heaven's girl, I'm not that old," Lindsey said with the hint of her Southern drawl. "I know what you were doing. And just for the record, I did tell you so."

She gave Ray a pat on the back.

"Don't you go breakin' her heart now, ya hear?" She said to him as she walked out the front door.

Neela turned to Ray and laughed.

"It's amazing how she could see in an instant what we managed not to see for over a year," Neela said, reaching out for Ray's hand. He took it and brought it to his lips, kissing it.

"I always saw it. I was just never sure you did," Ray admitted.

"Me, too."

He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her towards him.

"Let's make a deal," he said.

"What's that?"

"No more secrets."

"No more secrets," she agreed.

He leaned down and kissed her lightly on the lips.

"And in keeping with our secret, I have something I'd like to share."

"Oh?" She ran her hand down his arm, knowing that she was tantalizing him.

"I love you."

She smiled and a tear came to her eye. She had waited so long to hear those three words and they felt so good. She couldn't wait to hear them again.

"Well, as long as we're sharing secrets, I should tell you that…I'm about to have an affair with this very hot ER doctor down at County and he doesn't know it, but I'm in love with him."

"Well, we just won't tell him, now will we?"

He lowered his lips to hers, taking the time to taste and explore. As he lifted her off her feet once again, only one word came to each of their minds…_finally._

Author's Note

I have to agree with Ray and Neela's last sentiment – finally! With real life getting in the way, I wasn't sure if I would ever get this done, but here it is. This chapter was a lot of fun to write. Thank you to everyone for their support and kind words. I've never had such an overwhelming response to a story before. Once real life calms down a bit, I hope to start a new story so be on the lookout!


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